Sidney Weintraub

Bio

Sidney Weintraub, an economist, is also Dean Rusk professor emeritus at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin. A member of the U.S. Foreign Service from 1949 to 1975, Dr. Weintraub held the post of deputy assistant secretary of state for international finance and development from 1969 to 1974 and assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1975. He was also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Weintraub received his Ph.D. from the American University and speaks Spanish and French.

As the current holder of the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy devotes much attention to the workings of NAFTA and the progress of economic integration arrangements in the hemisphere. Dr. Weintraub provided leadership on an extended study of the automotive industry in North America, The North American Auto Industry under NAFTA. He is the author of the book, Financial Decision-Making in Mexico To Bet a Nation (Macmillan, 2000) on why sophisticated policy makers made the disastrous decisions they did prior to the Mexican peso devaluation December 1994. Development and Democracy in the Southern Cone Imperatives for U.S. Policy in South America was published by CSIS in March 2000. Dr. Weintraub is undertaking a study on The Future of Market Capitalism in Latin America which will examine the solidity of the current economic model among the political leadership and other groups in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, and Mexico. Additional activities include a study of the responses to Mexican migration for the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform and a study exploring the effectiveness of unilateral economic sanctions. He was co-manager of the CSIS project that examined unilateral economic sanctions and their alternatives.

Academic Background

Areas of Expertise

  • International trade and finance; Mexico; Canada; Brazil; Latin America

Present Position (s)

  • William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Previous Position (s)

Other Activities and Memberships

  • Dean Rusk professor emeritus at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin

Publications

Recent Books

  • Financial Decision-Making in Mexico To Bet A Nation.  (Macmillan, and University of Pittsburgh, 2000).

  • Development and Democracy in the Southern Cone Imperatives for Policy in South America. (CSIS, 2000)

  • NAFTA at Three A Progress Report (CSIS, 1997)

  • NAFTA What Comes Next? (Praeger/CSIS, 1994)

  • A Marriage of Convenience Relations between Mexico and the United States (Oxford University Press, 1990)

  • Free Trade between Mexico and the United States? (Brookings, 1984)

Current Research Projects

Recommended Links

Areas of Interest

  • Particular interest in Latin America and Canada and consequently cooperates closely with the Americas Program at CSIS.

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